066 - The German Plan to Destroy French Culture - The Occupation of France - WW2 - November 30, 1940

While Hitler consolidates his power in occupied France, Japanese and Italian forces try to get an edge, but fail. The war is not looking too well for anyone at this point.

Written and Hosted by: Indy Neidell
Produced and Directed by: Spartacus Olsson and Astrid Deinhard
Executive Producers: Bodo Rittenauer, Astrid Deinhard, Indy Neidell, Spartacus Olsson
Creative Producer: Joram Appel
Post-Production Director: Wieke Kapteijns
Research by: Indy Neidell
Edited by: Mikołaj Cackowski

Colorizations by:

Sources:
-Archiwum Cyfrowe

A TimeGhost chronological documentary produced by OnLion Entertainment GmbH.

[WorldWarTwo]

Early on in this series we realised that colorised portraits do a great job of humanising the main characters of the war. This is why we make a big effort to have every single portrait we used colorised. We have an ever growing team of amazing volunteers who do this for us on a weekly basis. All of them have their own Facebook and Instagram pages where they showcase all of their work (not just portraits). Make sure to follow them, I promise you won't be disappointed. Here is a list of our most active volunteers:


Cheers,
Joram

*RULES OF CONDUCT*
STAY CIVIL AND POLITE we will delete any comments with personal insults, or attacks.
AVOID PARTISAN POLITICS AS FAR AS YOU CAN we reserve the right to cut off vitriolic debates.
HATE SPEECH IN ANY DIRECTION will lead to a ban.
RACISM, XENOPHOBIA, OR SLAMMING OF MINORITIES will lead to an immediate ban.
PARTISAN REVISIONISM, ESPECIALLY HOLOCAUST AND HOLODOMOR DENIAL will lead to an immediate ban.

[grishnikov]

Can we just appreciate that Indy and the crew use multiple sources, and let us know how the sources either compliment or contradict each other? Really insightful to the influence of bias as well as common perceptions of the war.

[Greyyfr]

Can we appreciate that Indy is still doing this despite the demonization hell that has plagued history channels such as his, he doesn’t make nearly as much as he should but yet he continues to provide us education and entertainment!

[fotistsigdemoglou-mastrapa]

Indy, as a greek, thank you for covering the Greco-Italian with so much detail, its actually one of the most celebrated events in our modern history because its one of the veeery few times where the greeks were united (might actually be the last ) .Even though this unity didn't last long (civil war started right after) its so important to us that we are probably the only country to celebrate the start of the war -people especially in Athens after the declaration of the war run to the streets with flags and a great sense of happiness and pride-and not the end which led to a total catastrophe. So again thank you and keep up this brilliant work

[gungriffen]

"My name is Inigo Montoya you killed my father, prepare to die."

I busted out laughing at that intro!

[menitobussolini]

These phone conversations in the beggining keep getting weirder and weirder.

[stevenmoore]

Mussolini: invading Greece will be a walk in the park!


Papagos: Unfortunately for you history will not see it that way!

[araml.]

What I like very much about this series is that, although I have read and seen so much about the war and all it's sides, stories, political events, battles and campaignes, for the first time I see all these things happen at the same timeline.

[GarrusN]

Greece did a lot more work in their battles with Italy than I realized.

[tejesedeny]

I really appreciate placing the particular military movements into a bigger picture, like why the Greeks pushing further is so embarrassing for Germany, etc. It really helps understanding why things happened the way they happened.
Also, loved the Princess bride reference and how it made sense in the middle of the episode. 'Hello. My name is Inigo Campioni. You killed my ship. Prepare to die.' 😃

[altrias]

To those of you wondering about the opening phone call, the guy on the other side was telling him “my name is Inigo Montoya, you killed my father, prepare to die”. (Movie : the princess bride) Because the Italian admiral in this week’s naval engagement is named Inigo. That’s a stupidly hilarious yet completely niche reference

[apmoy]

This week in the Greco-Italian War is marked by the opening of the Battle of Pogradec:

The Battle of Pogradec, the Greek effort for the capture of the important Albanian city on the shores of lake Ohrid, near the border of Albania with Yugoslavia, opened on Sunday, November 27, 1940.
The battle was a stiff one because the Italians had heavily fortified the town.

A heavy Greek artillery bombardment was followed by bayonet charges launched by the divisions of Greek T.S.D.M ('West Macedonia Army Section' an army-sized unit with five infantry divisions under the overall command of Lt. Gen. Ioannis Pitsikas) for four days. As a result, the Italians fell in disarray. The Italian 53rd Infantry Division 'Arezzo' (Div. Gen. Ernesto Ferrone) in particular, was badly hit and started a full retreat to the north, towards Elbasan.

On November 30, 1940, the Greek XIII Infantry Division under new command (Maj. Gen. Sotirios Moutoussis became its CO just a few days earlier) from T.S.D.M. took Pogradec. It must be noted that during the operations for the capture of Pogradec, six battalion and two regimental commanders were relieved by Gen. Moutoussis.
Mopping-up operations continued for two more days. The bulk of the Italian forces however, managed to escape because the Greeks were poorly motorized and the weather had turned cold and snowy. The Battle of Pogradec cost the Greeks 2, 972 casualties.

Italian General Carlo Geloso, commanding officer of 11. Army in Albania, notified the Italian C-in-C, General Ubaldo Soddu after the fall of Pogradec, that:
'...a new line of defence is chosen in the hope of avoiding the loss - even temporarily - of Sarandë, Gjirokastër, and Përmet in Albania. Italian forces are exhausted and their efficiency is reduced by 70%'

[Jodonho]

"Hubris never leads you to where you think it will."

Neither does Nemesis, come to think about it.

[pnutz_]

never realised inigo montoya rang up people on the phone until I saw 8:16

[TheLocalLt]

This episode is for everyone who has been complaining about the lack of detail in Greece. If you watch this series you know that they will usually give an overview for most episodes and take a deep dive when major events happen or when there’s a lack of other stuff going on.

[rafailpap]

Today I visited the National War Museum of Greece in Athens. I was able to identify many of the exhibition artifacts about WW1, WW2 . This show honestly teaching history, keep up the good work!!

[eldorados_lost_searcher]

Inigo Montoya obviously had the wrong number. Indy clearly has five fingers on his right hand.

[nerokota]

Greek plan for the war against Italy: it's over Italy, I got the high ground.

[m]

This is so stupid that youtube is demonetizing the history channels because of war. This series is pure educational content, if people don't know about history how are they supposed to recognize and stop this from happening again. Mad respect for Indy and crew for keeping up with this even after the youtube fiasco.

[gunman]

It is only coming to the end of 1940, and already so many events are happening at the same time in one week. Already, an average 12 min weekly video can barely keep up with things.

At this rate, at the end of the war, we might need a 30 min video just to cover your average week.... Still, keep up the good work!